Voters give city council three new members; Rollins re-elected; Chandler loses rural Midway, county

Three of the four Midway City Council members on the ballot won re-election yesterday, but Council Member Doris Leigh lost her seat, finishing seventh in a race with six winners and 10 candidates.

Vice Mayor Sharon Turner, right, again led the pack with 453 votes, but the next three winners were newcomers: Sara Hicks with 423, Grayson Vandegrift with 406 and Bruce Southworth with 379. Incumbents Aaron Hamilton (367) and Dan Roller (342) were re-elected. Leigh was close behind with 338. Kevin Locke got 323, Steven Craig 260 and Michael Ashton 201. All figures are from the website of the secretary of state. (An earlier version of this story had an incorrect result.) Council Member Joy Arnold did not seek re-election, and appointed Council Member Charlann Wombles did not run.

In other races of major local interest:

State Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, left, got 53.3 percent of the vote against Republican Douglass Jones of Lexington, who was boosted in the final week by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, speaking on a radio commercial paid for by his political action committee. Rollins won 10,851 to 9,522. He carried the Midway city precinct 543 to 235 and the rural Midway precinct 251 to 198. The precinct totals do not include absentee votes.

Republican lawyer Andy Barr of Lexington carried Midway's rural precinct, 247 to 201, in his victory over 6th District U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles. Chandler carried the city precinct 467 to 298. Independent Randolph Vance got 8 and 16 votes in the two precincts, respectively. In unofficial, incomplete returns, Barr got 50.6 percent of the district's vote and Chandler got 46.7 percent, and Chandler lost his home Woodford County by about the same percentages, 6,221 to 5,803. He carried only Franklin and Fayette counties.